Virginia lawmakers seek a gambling addiction committee.

Virginia lawmakers seek a gambling addiction committee.

Sen. Bryce Reeves (R-Spotsylvania) and Del. Paul Krizek (D-Fairfax) think that the state’s growth in gaming over the past few years calls for more protections for consumers.

In 2018, Virginia lawmakers started to loosen their longtime ban on most forms of commercial gambling. The state-run lottery was the main exception. In that year, Virginia lawmakers made historical horse racing (HHR) gaming legal. These machines look like slot machines, but they are actually pari-mutuel betting machines.

Since then, HHR parlors have opened at the Colonial Downs Racetrack and at Rosie’s Gaming Emporium locations in New Kent, Vinton, Richmond, Hampton, Dumfries, and Collinsville. Churchill Downs, Rosie’s parent company, is building The Rose, an HHR casino resort worth $400 million, in Dumfries, about 30 miles south of the nation’s capital.

In 2020, lawmakers in Virginia passed Senate Bill 36, which regulates and controls gambling in casinos. In April 2020, Democratic Governor Ralph Northam signed the bill.

The law gave five cities that were having trouble with their economies the option of building casinos to get the economy going. In the 2020 November election, the people of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Bristol, and Danville voted to approve their local casino bids. During the 2021 election, the people of Richmond turned down a plan to build a casino in their city.

Last July, Hard Rock Bristol opened a temporary casino. It was the first casino that was allowed to be open in Virginia. On January 15, Rivers Casino Portsmouth will open. The 2020 gaming bill also made it legal to bet on sports in the new casinos and online.

Bettor Needs Resources

Reeves and Krizek think that Virginia should do more to help people who are likely to get gambling problems. That’s after the number of legal gambling options in the commonwealth grew by a lot. Their proposed law, House Bill 1465, would tell the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) to set up and run the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Advisory Committee.

The goal of the bill is to “enable prevention and treatment providers and legal gaming operators in the Commonwealth to work together to reduce the bad effects of problem gambling.”

In a press release, Reeves said, “As Virginia moves forward with expanding gambling, it’s important that we understand the problems that come with it.”

“Prevention research has shown that people who start gambling in their teens are more likely to have a problem with it,” Krizek said. “And that young adults are one of the groups whose gambling problems are getting worse the most quickly.”

The 2021 Youth Survey from the Virginia Department of Health found that almost a quarter of high school students had gambled or made some kind of bet in the past year.

Who’s on the Problem Gaming Committee?

If HB1465 gets enough support in the Virginia General Assembly and Gov. In fact, Glenn Youngkin (R) signs it, the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Advisory Committee would have members from many different backgrounds. Reeves and Krizek say that the state’s problem gambling prevention coordinator, a new position in the DBHDS, would be in charge of the committee.

Moreover, the committee would also have people who work in the legal gaming business. The Virginia Council on Problem Gambling would also be given a place to sit. The Problem Gambling Council is not an official state agency, but it gets money from the Virginia Lottery.

Over the past three years, the number of calls to the nonprofit’s gambling helpline went up by more than 140%. The Problem Gambling Council said that its helpline got 816 calls last year, which is a big jump from the 335 calls it got in 2020.